May Day rally in Allentown

The new arena was at the center of a rally outside Allentown's City Hall Thursday.

Local union workers are demanding a living wage be paid to all workers inside the arena and within the city's Neighborhood Improvement Zone.

Also part of the issue is controversy over some of the arena's planned tenants.

"The employers they brought in can't even really pay minimum wage. They've caused numerous minimum wage, overtime, tip skipping violations," said Jim Brilhart, a member of the Lehigh Valley Industrial Workers of the World.

The protestors say they're referring to Chickie's and Petes, which settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit earlier this year for alleged tip and wage violations.

We reached out to representatives from the city and the arena, but they have not commented so far.

Thursday's rally coincided with International Workers Day or "May Day."

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